Jon Stewart on Fast and Furious

by Pejman Yousefzadeh on June 23, 2012

Via Ed Morrissey. I guess that this means Stewart is going to be denounced as a member of the VRWC within short order. For whatever reason, I can’t seem to embed the videos, so just click on the link to see them.

And of course, if Stewart wants Republicans to play the reconciliation game regarding expressions of outrage, that’s pretty easy to do. Here’s Morrissey on the issue:

Actually, there is a key difference … but it doesn’t help Democrats. The issue in 2007 involved the use of non-delegable executive authority specifically granted under Article II to make political appointments — in the event, those of US Attorneys, who like all other political appointees serve at will at the pleasure of the President. As courts have ruled in Nixon and Espy, executive privilege applies in the exercise of non-delegable Article II powers as part of the separation of powers in the government. Operation Fast and Furious was conducted by a federal agency under powers delegated to the DoJ that are shared between Congress and the President. Furthermore, the subpoenas in this case relate to official misconduct and lawbreaking — not just the gunrunning but also false testimony before Congress. Presidents cannot claim executive privilege to shield documents in those circumstances, as Espy explicitly states.

In addition, as mentioned before, the attorney general was willing to let members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to see the documents being fought over. If members of Congress can see the documents, why is there a need to assert executive privilege regarding them?